At what point can a site make it on its own?

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Kira

10:21 pm on Oct 12, 1999 (gmt 0)

I'm working on three sites based entirely upon advertising revenue. What do people feel is the traffic break even point? I have an idea that would require two more domains, but I wonder if those domains can even pay for themselves? -KiraJo.

Brett_Tabke

8:39 am on Oct 13, 1999 (gmt 0)

Answer two questions first:

What are your startup expenses per domain? What are your monthly expenses per domain? What would those two average out over two years figure out to be per month?

For myself it runs: $15 a month for server expenses, $20 for isp bills spread out over 5 domains. $3.25 for the domain name, $40 for pc expenses spread across 5 domains. (costing out $500 a year in upgrades) $20 in other intangible expenses (electric, printer supplies, normal system depreciation, etc)

Altogether, I'd say I $run around $35-$40 per domain per month figuring over two years averaged over 5 domains.

To break even: $3 cpm works out to be about 450 page views a day. $2 cpm works out to be about 650 page views a day.

Granted thats not including labor or any other overhead (issurance,medical,etc).

I personally figure 1000 page views a day to be a realistic break even point. and 5000 a day to make any money.

Also depends upon the type of site. This one here has averaged around $6 cpm for two years on an average of 2k page views a day (with some 10-15 fold huge spikes when I put out the Quarterly).